Dinosaurs Matilda

The next posts will be entries from my journal.

Journal,

I'm sitting here on John's couch, writing. We're back from watching Stephen training his dogs. He's an amazing welder and welds brands. My favourite brand was one of a devil for the local football team. He's also a fantastic dog trainer. He's got 10 dogs: Benji, Shell, Jilly, Blondie, Omo, Herbie, Tiger and some others, whose names escape me. We watched the dogs rounding up sheep into a pen. It was incredible. Earlier in the day we went to the Dinosaur Stampede Monument. It was a follow-up from the previous day's dino activities. Maybe I should explain that first.
Yesterday we went on a tour of the Australian Age of Dinosaurs Museum. We were taken into a room, where a series of videos were shown about AAoDM and the dinosaurs themselves: Matilda, Banjo and Elliot. I've recreated one of them to show you: Matilda and Banjo.

MOST PHOTOS OFF THE INTERNET. MANY ARE NOT MINE. PLEASE INFORM OF ANY COPYRIGHT ISSUES AND SHALL DELETE VIDEO.

So now I shall tell you the story.
Matilda:
Scientific name: Diamantinasaurus matildae
Type: Sauropod
Description: A massive, herbivorous sauropod, Matilda was 2.5 metres tall from the hip and 15-18 metres long.
Skeleton: 40% (extremely complete) MOST COMPLETE SAUROPOD IN AUSTRALIA.

Banjo:
Scientific name: Australo venator wintonensis
Type: Theropod
Description: Banjo, a carnivorous monster, was armed with massive claws and stood 1.6 m tall at the hip and 5m long.
Skeleton: 35% (incredibly complete) MOST COMPLETE THEROPOD SKELETON IN AUSTRALIA

The Banjo and Matilda story

Once, around 90,000,000 years ago, there were two dinosaurs: Banjo, a therapod and old Matilda, a sauropod. Matilda had been for a drink at the waterhole, wading into the mud. But Matilda was old and frail, and this time as she sunk into the mud, she couldn't get out. She was stuck and knew she would die. Then Banjo came along, spying the sauropod and hoping for a quick, easy dinner. That dinner cost him his life.  Seeing the predator, Matilda lashed out with her tail, knocking Banjo dead. In this way, their skeletons were found on top of each other millions of years later.

So, just to say, previously I was sitting on the couch, waiting to go to the musical fence and now I'm sitting at the camp table, 2 days later.  Anyhow, the dinosaurs I was talking about earlier was the dinosaur stampede monument. We had another tour, and the audio visual part told us about the stampede:
A herd of ornithopods
A herd of coelurosaurs
And......

ONE MASSIVE, CARNIVOROUS THERAPOD!!

The chase that ensues is the only known evidence of a dinosaur stampede IN THE WORLD!!! So the footprints were unveiled...

The theropod leapt out, taking massive strides towards his prey... but wait! Is his speed increasing? Yes it sure is. He's locked onto prey, and he's kicking up more mud than before. His prey is concentrating on getting to the lush vegetation that was Winton 90,000,000 years ago and changes direction. The predator spins and changes direction himself. It's the classic predator vs. prey. Who will win? And there the fossils end: the mystery still not solved.
So, I was saying something about a musical fence, wasn't I? Well, the musical fence is a unique instrument in the middle of outback QLD. It consists of percussion kits made of everyday household junk and five fence strings which can play different notes. Sadly, the metal poles for playing the fence were missing, but we still had heaps of fun playing on the drum kits.